In a message dated Mon, 21 Aug 2000  1:45:47 PM Eastern Daylight Time, Colin Macgregor Stevens <[log in to unmask]> writes:


>>>For example the Apollo 11 command module was NASA property. If a NASA
official chose to give a souvenir piece to someone (e.g. one of the
astronauts), who are we to say that this individual cannot own or sell it
but must surrender it to the 'state' (i.e. a museum in this case)?

There was the recent case that a lady had been given a souvenior by a NASA person of a paperweight or something similar that had a piece of moonrock in it. It was her personal propertly that was given to her as a gift from someone who also had gotten the moonrock legally. She tried to sell it on eBay and NASA stepped in, claiming that all moonrocks were government property and it upheld in court.

>>>If a
technician replaces a faulty valve and keeps the useless faulty valve as a
souvenir is this improper? [This is assuming that NASA does not have a
policy preventing such actions.]

I would assume that this would be prevented as we want to protect our technology. It's one thing if the value is an international standard but another if it is a proprietary system. It's one thing to say that you have a used oil filter from the president's limo that is a stand motor industry oil filter; it's another to have a used oil filter that is only used in the President's limo and is especially contructed for that limo for security reasons. We don't want things falling into people's hands that they could potentially use against us.

Deb

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